Suu Kyi to construct diverse cabinet. Democratic Voice of Burma. 27 November 2015. Burma’s new cabinet will include members of other political parties and representatives of ethnic minorities, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi said on Thursday, stressing the need for national reconciliation. The NLD won a majority in both houses of Burma’s parliament and also faired better than expected against ethnic political parties in regional legislatures.
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Smaller parties claim exclusion from political dialogue. Democratic Voice of Burma. By Connor Macdonald And Phyo Thiha Cho. 27 November 2015. While fighting rages in northern Shan State between Burma’s army and ethnic rebel groups that failed to sign a nationwide ceasefire, the start of a dialogue among signatories of the accord also ran into problems, as some political parties voiced anger over being excluded from the process.
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Hpakant miners back at work after deadly landslide. Democratic Voice of Burma. By Reuters. 26 November 2015. Miners in Burma’s northern Kachin State are continuing to risk their lives to find precious stones less than a week after a landslide killed more than a hundred people in Hpakant. On Saturday, a man-made mountain of earth excavated from nearby jade mines collapsed in the early hours of the morning, smashing into a makeshift settlement and burying mineworkers as they slept.
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NLD officially wins outright majority. Democratic Voice of Burma. 13 November 2015. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has swept Burma’s general election and will hold a majority of seats in parliament which will allow it to form a new government next year.
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Aung San Suu Kyi wins Myanmar election in landslide victory. Sydney Morning Herald. November 13, 2015. Aung San Suu Kyi has officially been declared the winner of Myanmar's election, making history in the once hermit nation ruled for half a century by brutal dictators. Days of painstakingly slow vote counting on Friday finally gave Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy more than half the seats in the country's 329 seat parliament, allowing the 70-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner to nominate a president and form a government.
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The evil being mined along with jade in Myanmar. Farmonline. By Lindsay Murdoch. 23 October 2015. Military elites, drug lords and crony companies linked to Myanmar's former military junta are running a $US31 billion-a-year ($43 billion) jade trade in one of the world's biggest natural resource heists, according to a 12-month investigation.
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Pair arrested for Facebook posts mocking general. Sydney Morning Herald. By Lindsay Murdoch. 16 October 2015. Myanmar authorities have arrested a peace activist and a young woman for mocking the country's powerful military in the latest crackdown on free speech ahead of landmark elections on November 8.
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Myanmar's political exiles return to fight for country's future at elections. . ABC News Online. By freelance contributor Kayleigh Long in Yangon. 2 October 2015. As international attention builds on the country known for decades as Burma, but now Myanmar, political exiles are returning home. One of them is Aung Moe Zaw, chair of the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS). Until recently, the party was outlawed.
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India’s long highway to Myanmar takes shape. By Julian Bouissou. The Guardian. 27 September 2015. Despite obstacles and local concerns, Narendra Modi’s ambitious $1.3 billion plan to link India’s north eastern states to the Bay of Bengal is advancing.
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Relief promised to homeless in Hakha. Democratic Voice of Burma. 24 September 2015. President Thein Sein visited Chin State’s capital Hakha on Wednesday to pledge support for locals left homeless by recent floods and landslides. The Burmese leader stressed his government’s commitment to resettle locals whose homes were damaged or destroyed by landslides triggered by the cyclonic wind and rains that struck western Burma between June and August this year.
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Chin hopeful: ‘Economy would improve if we increase women’s incomes.’ The Irrawaddy. 24 September 2015. The 34-year-old is aiming for a Lower House seat in Falam Township as one of five women candidates from the Chin Progressive Party (CPP). By Thin Lei Win. 24 September 2015. Tuan Cer Sung, better known as Cheery Zahau, was born in Sagaing Region to ethnic Chin parents. Her teacher father instilled in her a ‘can do’ spirit and after high school she started working for a Chin women’s group operating in Mizoram, along the India-Burma border.
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Election 2015: Chin campaigning stuck in the mud. Democratic Voice of Burma. By Naw Noreen. 23 September 2015. While the election campaigns are under way across the country, politiparties in Chin State say they are struggling to reach rural areas due to the destruction to transportation and other infrastructure caused by monsoonal floods last month.
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NLD accuses Ma Ba Tha of unlawful influence. The Irrawaddy. By Moe Myint. 23 September 2015. Burma’s main opposition party alleges that the Buddhist nationalist group distributed print materials and delivered sermons defaming the NLD and attempting to influence the electorate.
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NLD and military can cooperate, Suu Kyi says. Democratic Voice of Burma. 22 September 2015. Speaking in a nationally televised party political broadcast last night, Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), said that her party was ready to work with the Burmese military, and that the two sides shared the same goals for the country’s future.
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Suu Kyi promises govt ‘free from corruption’. Democratic Voice of Burma. 21 September 2015. Attacking the ruling government for lying to the public, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi roused crowds in central Burma this weekend by promising that, if elected, her National League for Democracy (NLD) would form a clean government, free from corruption.
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As water recedes, mud poses new problems. Myanmar Times. By Aye Sapay Phyu . Thursday, 20 August 2015. Even as floodwaters recede, landslide-plagued Chin State and some villages in Sagaing Region remain inaccessible behind a thick wall of mud.
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Foreign experts surveying for new Chin State capital. Myanmar Times. By Lun Min Mang. Thursday, 20 August 2015. Experts from Germany are taking surveys on the earth quality in Hakha, as plans to relocate the landslide-prone Chin State capital move ahead. While a survey is already being conducted by the government, the Hakha Rescue Committee said it has contracted another, separate assessment by international experts.
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Landslides and More Rain Likely to Prevent Voting in Myanmar’s Chin State. Radio Free Asia. 19 August 2015. Residents of western Myanmar’s Chin state will face challenges reaching polling places to vote in general elections in November because of washed-out roads and bridges caused by recent floods along with continued heavy rains, local election officials said Wednesday. More than 270,000 voters of Chin’s population of 478,800 may not be able to reach polling stations to cast ballots for 202 candidates from their state because traveling will be hazardous or impossible, especially in Tonzang, Tiddim, Falam and Hakha townships, ethnic Chin political party leaders said.
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Revealed: NLD’s economic policies. Myanmar Times. By Clare Hammond. Monday, 17 August 2015. The National League for Democracy (NLD)’s economic strategy will focus on five ‘pillars’ according to a document seen by The Myanmar Times. The opposition party’s economic policy is based on five priorities – fiscal prudence, lean and efficient government, revitalising agriculture, monetary and fiscal stability, and functioning infrastructure.
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Second term beckons for Myanmar president after rival ousted. Thursday 13 August 2015. Reuters. By Andrew R.C. Marshall. The ouster of a powerful political rival less than three months before a landmark election in Myanmar was dramatic confirmation of President Thein Sein's desire for a second term in office, analysts said.Shwe Mann was removed as chairman of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) on Thursday after security forces surrounded its headquarters in the capital, Naypyitaw.Both Shwe Mann, long considered a presidential frontrunner, and the USDP's secretary general were replaced by Thein Sein allies.
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In Remote Paletwa, Flooded Communities Face Unseen Struggle to Survive. The Irrawaddy. By Alec Scott, Flora Mawi & Lian Bawi Thang. Tuesday 11 August, 2015. Remote Paletwa Township in southwestern Chin State has been one of the hardest hit and most underreported jurisdictions of Burma’s four states and divisions declared disaster zones on July 31, with supply shortages and mass displacement going largely unaddressed in the government’s response to the flooding crisis of recent weeks. Since late July, the township’s main supply routes have been severed by extreme flooding along the Kaladan River, preventing most waterborne traffic between Kyauktaw in Arakan State and Paletwa town, the township’s main distribution center
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Food shortages feared in Tonzang Township: Interview with Mungte. Monday, 10 August 2015. Chinland Guardian. Tonzang is one of the nine townships in Chin State seriously affected by landslides and flash floods caused by recent heavy rains. However, the humanitarian situation in the State’s western part still remains under-reported because of limited communication facilities and road destruction.
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Trapped Chin State residents fear looming food shortages. Myanmar Times. By Wa Lone. Friday, 07 August 2015. Landslides caused by heavy rain in Chin State last week have cut off seven towns and put thousands at risk of running out of food and potable water, residents said. People are trapped in Hakha, Tiddim, Falam, Paletwa, Matupi, Mindat and Ton Zang townships without a viable method of transportation in or out, according to the locals’ assessment. … In Falam township, which neighbours Hakha along the border with the Indian state of Mizoram, more than 15,000 people have been affected by the disaster. “We still have enough rice for one week for people in the city, but not enough to provide the rural areas,” said Joel Za Hlain Cap, chair of the Falam-based Chin Relief Committee.
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Ravaged Roads Cut Off Supplies in Remote Chin State. By Salai Thant Zin. The Irrawaddy. Thursday, August 6, 2015. Food is in short supply in much of northwestern Burma’s Chin State, where two main cities have been cut off by landslides caused by heavy monsoon rain in recent weeks. Some supplies have reached the capital, Hakha, and Falam in the northernmost reaches of the state, aid workers said, but the deliveries dropped in by military helicopters are not sufficient for the sheer number of people displaced or trapped by storms.
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Myanmar scrambles to assess flood damage. Irin News. By Jared Ferrie and Chris Mana Hung. 6 August 2015. Washed-out roads and bloated rivers are just two of the challenges facing relief workers who are trying to assess the damage caused by flooding in Myanmar, which has already killed 27 people and affected at least 150,000 and is expected to get worse. Myanmar’s government declared a state of emergency in four areas that have been inundated by heavy monsoon rains. A cyclone that formed in the Bay of Bengal unusually late in the year has worsened flooding in the western states of Rakhine and Chin over the past few days.
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Adelaide snake experts head to Myanmar to help with bites. The Advertiser.Tuesday 3 August 2015. Snakebite is rare in Adelaide but our lifesaving expertise is helping poor farmers in Myanmar where more than 10,000 people are bitten every year and about 500 die. Survivors often suffer long-term consequences such as kidney damage. The University of Adelaide is leading an international three-year project with $2.3 million from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to address the burden of disease. The Myanmar Government and industry is also providing funding.
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India and Myanmar monsoon rains leave dozens dead. BBC News. 2 August 2015. At least 20 people have been killed in a landslide as monsoon rains continue to batter parts of South-East Asia. The landslip in the eastern Indian state of Manipur buried a whole village, Indian media reported. In neighbouring Myanmar, four western regions have been declared disaster zones after heavy floods left at least 27 people dead. Incessant rain over several weeks has led to flooding and landslides in most of the country …
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Govt must quickly respond to disaster: Chin organizations. Saturday, 1 August 2015. Chinland Guardian. Burma's government has been urged to take immediate action to provide humanitarian assistance to disaster-hit victims in Chin State and other parts of the country. The Chin National Front and the Chin Human Rights Organization called on the State and Union governments to 'quickly and meaningfully respond to the disaster'. In a statement released today, they said that the government should allow 'unfettered access for local and international aid organizations' to provide effective relief and rehabilitation for thousands of victims.
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About 700 buildings evacuated in Hakha after landslides. Friday, 31 July 2015. Chinland Guardian. About 1,000 families have evacuated their houses in Hakha, Chin State as flash floods and landslides continue following continuous heavy rains.It is estimated that about 7,00 buildings, including government offices, schools and private houses, have been left empty as they are in danger of collapse.
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NLD to contest November elections. Mizzima News. Sunday, 12 July 2015. Opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has said her party would contest the national election on November 8, ending months of uncertainty about the participation of National League for Democracy (NLD) in the crucial poll.
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NGO calls on president to veto interfaith marriage bill. Mizzima News. Saturday 11 July 2015. Myanmar’s President U Thein Sein should refuse to sign into law the discriminatory interfaith marriage bill passed by parliament on July 7, 2015, Human Rights Watch said in a press release on July 10. The bill targets Buddhist women who marry – or seek to marry – non-Buddhist men and introduces vaguely defined acts against Buddhism as grounds for divorce, forfeiture of custody and matrimonial property, and potential criminal penalties.
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Burma Backslides on Freedom of the Press. Foreign Policy. June 19 2015. By Wai Moe?. In August 2012, the Burmese government announced that it was abolishing the system of censorship that had been in place, more or less uninterrupted, for the previous half century. The period since then has witnessed a remarkable flowering of expression. Newspapers, magazines, and broadcast outlets have proliferated, and journalists have subjected hitherto taboo topics to close public scrutiny. Over the past few months, however, the tide seems to be turning for Burma’s newly self-assertive press. Reporters are complaining of growing pressure from the authorities. Journalists are landing in jail or facing lawsuits from disgruntled officials.
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Burma one of countries most affected by climate change. Democratic Voice of Burma. By Tun Tun Thein. 15 June 2015. Burma has been ranked by a German think tank as the second worst country with regards to the effects of climate change between 1994 and 2013. The Global Climate Risk Index 2015, published by Germanwatch, listed Honduras as the country suffering most from the effects of extreme weather events in the 20-year period. Burma’s neighbours Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand were ranked as fourth, sixth and ninth worst affected, respectively.
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Caught in the crossfire. Democratic Voice of Burma. By Melanie Keyte. 15 June 2015. A small and isolated community in Chin State have suffered human rights abuses and been forced to flee their homes due to recent outbreaks of fighting in the state’s south, the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) has reported. … The village of Pyin So, one-and-a-half hours’ boat ride to the town of Paletwa, is home to 62 households of ethnic Khumi people. The area is one of the poorest in Burma and, CHRO says, is heavily militarised, with 20 Burmese army positions in Paletwa Township alone. The CHRO paper says that more than 350 people have abandoned their homes due to abuses such as the recruitment of minors, arbitrary detention, physical abuse, forced labour, abduction and the use of landmines.
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Constitutional amendment bill falls short of NLD expectations. Democratic Voice of Burma. By Peter Aung. 12 June 2015. An amendment bill, distributed to MPs in the Union Parliament on Wednesday, suggests easing constitutional articles 59 and 436(a) but not to the degree that reform campaigners have advocated. … Many legal experts consider changing Article 436 as the gateway to constitutional reform in Burma. Observers point out that as 25 percent of all parliamentary seats are reserved for military appointees, the armed forces effectively controls veto power over any changes to the charter.
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Burmese women could be forced to have fewer children under new law. The Guardian. Sunday 24 May 2015. Law requiring women to space children three years apart in areas of high population growth seen as targeted at minorities such as Rohingya Muslims. Burma’s president has signed off on a law requiring some mothers to space their children three years apart despite international objections that it could be used to repress women and minorities such as the Rohingya Muslims now fleeing the country for other parts of south-east Asia.
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Villagers worried as bad weather disrupts cultivation. Chinland Guardian. Tuesday, 28 April 2015. Continuous rains in parts of Chin State, Burma since last month have caused problems for farmers, interrupting seasonal work in their subsistence farming. Chin farmers from at least 30 villages in the two townships of Thantlang and Falam have not been able to burn their fields in time to prepare for crop cultivation.
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US ambassador to Burma visits Chin State. Chinland Guardian. Tuesday, 21 April 2015. By Thawng Zel Thang. Derek Mitchell, the US ambassador to Burma, is making his first trip to Chin State, arriving in Hakha today. The 50-year-old American diplomat and his team were greeted at the entrance to the capital by a group of town-elders, pastors and leaders in traditional dress.
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Long wait for Chin airport nears end. Myanmar Times. By Bill O’Toole. Friday, 10 April 2015. After 70 years of lobbying, the last state in Myanmar without an airport is finally on the verge of receiving its own runway – a move advocates say could kickstart tourism in one of the remotest corners of the country.
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Ethnic Chin Activist Cheery Zahau to Contest 2015 Election. By Nyein Nyein. The Irrawaddy. Friday, April 10, 2015. Rangoon — Ethnic Chin activist and human rights educator Cheery Zahau has announced plans to contest the general election slated for later this year. A member since 2012 of the Chin Progressive Party (CPP), for which she currently serves as one of three secretaries, the 33-year-old told The Irrawaddy that young and female voices were relatively absent from public life in Chin State.
“There is a gap there, and we need to raise the needs of young people and the women,” she said.
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Suu Kyi’s Political Skills Tested in Pre-Election Showdown. The Irrawaddy. By Andrew R.C. Marshall and Simon Webb. Reuters. Friday, April 10, 2015 . Naypyidaw — With an historic general election just seven months away, Burma’s opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is locked in a high-stakes showdown with a military-backed government that she says isn’t interested in reform.
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Why Burma still needs Aung San Suu Kyi. The Guardian. By Martin Woollacott. Monday 6 April 2015. Down University Avenue, a narrow road in an affluent district of north Rangoon, a procession of cars and trucks bumps, at rush hour, trying to avoid the city’s desperate congestion. It sometimes includes taxis bearing tourists who come to look at the house where Aung San Suu Kyi lives. All they can see is a big steel gate. Disappointed, they take a quick photo, then dodge back into the traffic jam. When she was first locked up here in 1989, this would have been almost a country lane, and the secluded villas like this on the edge of Inle lake would have been quiet and peaceful places, far from the bustle of central Rangoon, which in those days, to tell the truth, was also not that bustling.
When she emerged – first in 1995, and then in 2010 after further periods of house arrest – that choked back road could serve as a metaphor for what happened to Burma during her confinements. A huge economic development was under way, and now its pace is increasing.
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Myanmar riot police beat student protesters with batons. BBC News. 10 March 2015. Hundreds of baton-wielding police in Myanmar have broken up a demonstration by students who say a new law stifles academic freedom.
A BBC Burmese reporter at the scene said dozens of protesters were injured. More than 100 people were arrested.
The clashes took place in Letpadan, 140km (90 miles) north of Yangon.
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New generation of pro-government thugs. By Shwe Aung. Democratic Voice of Burma. 6 March 2015. A presidential spokesperson has denied that the notorious pro-government mob Swan Arr Shin is still in existence, after anonymous men wearing red armbands emblazoned with the word “Duty” were pictured assisting police in the crackdown on labour and student protests in Rangoon this week.
Ye Htut, speaking to DVB by phone on Thursday evening, insisted that only local government overseers of the police action may know the identity of the thugs.
“That word ‘Swan Arr Shin’ does not exist nowadays. The Rangoon Division government, as a regional administration, carried out the necessary measures to maintain security and the rule of law within their jurisdiction. You should ask them which groups the men in civilian clothing belong to, and what kind of policy determines their operation,” he said.
However, political activist and eye-witness to Thursday’s violent scenes, Zaw Ram, insisted that the men in the red armbands were indeed the Swan Arr Shin.
The Swan Arr Shin are infamous in Burma for their role in repressing public protests, often through intimidation and violence, such as during the 2007 Saffron Revolution.
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Rangoon students, activists released. Democratic Voice of Burma. 6 March 2015. All eight activists – five students and three 88 Generation members – who were detained at Thursday’s crackdown in Rangoon, have now been released.
According to a representative of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society (88GPOS) civic group, the eight were released from Yankin police station at around 6am after spending the night detained. They were taken into custody on Thursday afternoon after police and pro-government thugs attacked protestors on Maha Bandula Road, in front of City Hall and Sule Pagoda.
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Upper house approves population control bill. Democratic Voice of Burma. By Shwe Aung.19 February 2015. A bill which limits child births to one baby per mother every three years was passed by the upper house (amyotha hluttaw) of Burma’s parliament on Wednesday. The Population Control Healthcare Bill constitutes one part of a controversial four-proposal package that has been tabled in parliament, commonly referred to as the “Race Protection Bill”.
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Opium Turns Hillside Town Into ‘Widow Village’. By Salai Thant Zin. The Irawaddy. Saturday, January 10, 2015. Bordering India’s Manipur and Mizoram states to the west and Sagaing Division to the east, Tonzang Township is Chin State’s most mountainous and sparsely populated area, with little to no access to roads. Kanzam village dates back more than a century, its remaining residents said, and in the past it has been home to up to 100 people. In the 1990’s, they said, a new crop was introduced to the hill-dwelling agrarians. Since opium crept into their lives, the village population dove to 22.
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Aung San Suu Kyi concedes she won't become Myanmar's next president. Sydney Morning Herald. Friday 9 January 2015. Myanmar's opposition leader and democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi has acknowledged she will be unable to become her country's next president after elections later this year, a decision that will disappoint millions of her supporters. The 69 year-old Nobel laureate will instead seek to chair Myanmar's parliament where one-third of seats are allocated to the military, according to Aung Shin, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD).
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